"Fo Yo Sorrows" [ft. George Clinton and Too $hort]

Def Jam

Artists:

Man, just when it looked like Big Boi had disappeared down some label-trouble wormhole, here he is, once again back in stuttery-smooth form. On "Royal Flush", still probably the greatest of the Sir Lucious Left Foot leaks, Big Boi played something of a supporting role to a breathlessly great André 3000. Maybe Big Boi learned something from that one, since this time he's firmly in control of the show.

On "Fo Yo Sorrows", Big's costars are no joke: Clinton in spaced-out old-man ranting mode somehow always lends punchdrunk atmosphere even when he's not making sense, which is always. And Too $hort's brief cameo finds that annihilating sneer in ageless form. But both of those guys are, in different ways, Big Boi's forebears. With both of them on board, it's even more staggering the way Big Boi's managed to synthesize all those disparate influences into one of rap's most singular voices, ping-ponging his voice with a rhythmic virtuosity that not even André can quite pull off. Unlike André, Big is almost never a message rapper, and his post-Katrina invective here comes wrapped in elaborate show-offery and slick nonsense. And longtime producers Organized Noize give him exactly the sort of track he needs right now: an airy synthetic blank canvas, full of empty space that he can fill with rushed, euphoric syllable-spray.

[from Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty; out soon on Def Jam]